Help me understand this wiring array


JeffH

JeffH

Well-Known Member
I recently acquired a couple lots of train stuff at an auction, and I'm trying to figure out what the prior owner was controlling with these fairly large DS64's. Each DS64 can control up to four turnouts. And since there are Two wires coming from each output terminal, I'm going to assume that power went to the switch moter directly, and that the other wire went to the hand built array which could be a resister or maybe relays for lighted signals.

What are the things under the translucent globs?

PXL_20220712_001543146.jpg
PXL_20220712_001723754.jpg


PXL_20220712_001551107.jpg
 
Thanks, Ken!

Currently, I am controlling all my turnouts (peco) via momentary toggles on a central control panel. It's a poster sized printout of the layout with the toggles inserted in the correct places on the "map." I'm thinking about using these DS64's to control the turnouts, and to also power indicator lights that I would also insert onto the map. Not knowing anything about electronics, I'm thinking he probably was doing something similar, as there are 2 leads coming off each output terminal... One looks like it went directly to a tortoise machine (based on how the wires are connected to the terminals), the second looks to go through the array of "stuff" under the goop... which kind of looks like they could be mechanical relays... not sure. They could also be rectifiers, I suppose?
 
SO, I finally got around to deconstructing the yellowish blobs adjacent to the DS64s. There are four "latching relays" with diodes. The DS64s were wired for bipolar switch machines, and the auction I won had a bunch of Kato track, so I always assumed they were there to control turnouts.

The latching relays were most likely there to control LED indicator lights. This is definitely something I'd like to mimic if I ever get around to JMRI controlling my layout.
 
What was the purpose of covering them like they did? My first thought was moisture, but there look to be plenty of other exposed connections.

What was it they used?
 
Not sure what it is or why. Every connection is soldered except for the ones going to or from the DS64. I'm thinking it was just to keep things as put and avoid accidental shorts.

The relays were either there to control indicator lights, or, it is possible they were doing some sort of daisy chain turnout routing. But JMRI could do that... If the guy was an electrical engineer, perhaps setting routes was simpler to him by using relays?
 
JeffH said:
heres the picture. Looks like each latching relay had a diode attached.
Click to expand...
Do you know if these were connected to snap type turnout motors or stall type? If they were snap type, these relays could have been for signals on the layout or indicators on a control panel.
 
Iron Horseman said:
Do you know if these were connected to snap type turnout motors or stall type? If they were snap type, these relays could have been for signals on the layout or indicators on a control panel.
Click to expand...
That's what I was thinking, but the wires that are connected to the DS64's outputs are attached for stall type.
 
I'm assuming these were controlling Kato switches, as this stuff came in a huge lot that had a few hundred pieces of unittrack. 120-some pieces were double track curve pieces, and there were handwritten plans for a helix. So this guy was sophisticated, and was into computer programming, because there were also a lot of JMRI, Arduino, and Python manuals.
 
migalyto said:
What was the purpose of covering them like they did? My first thought was moisture, but there look to be plenty of other exposed connections.

What was it they used?
Click to expand...
To prevent someone from easily seeing and reverse-engineering an idea (probably a commercial idea) by seeing the numbers on those chips. It isn't for purposes of heat-sinking, I'm pretty sure. MIGHT be for purposes of moisture insulation, although doubtful.

That said, if the purpose was to obscure inspection, then it seems to me it would have been better to use a black sealant. No light, so no idea what lies behind.

It's a mystery. Let's get Holmes and Watson in on the case.
 
It looks like the diodes were hard wired in with uninsulated wiring. I think the glob was there to prevent shorts. It's just a bunch of relays and diodes. It also appears to be four unique circuits with a diode and a relay. The only reason I can think of to use a diode with relays would be to daisy chain the relays so if you throw a switch in the middle, the ripple effect only goes one direction.
 
JeffH said:
View attachment 169648
heres the picture. Looks like each latching relay had a diode attached.
Click to expand...
I've been pondering this one. What you DO have there is a self drilled "perfboard," where the builder laid out and drilled his own pins (electrical join points). The distance between each pin on the four black bus blocks is going to be the standard 0.10 inch (aka ten pins per inch). What your seller has done here is drill a much larger spaced perf-board of his own (the drawn grid), and it looks to me like the distance between pins is 1/4". While not a standard, at least one I'm not aware of, this would give old, tired eyes and maybe shaky hands with a soldering iron more room to both see and work. Good idea, so I'll applaud him, whoever he was.

As to the "goop": Now that you have uncovered one, I'll speculate he was worried as much as anything about diode pins making accidental contact with the pins on his ICs, thus he fixed them in place so that WOULDN'T happen. As with the larger spacing on his pin/perfboard, he just wanted to be sure crossed pins weren't a problem, if he had to diagnose problems. Good thinking.

I wish I could do that with all the crossed pins, misspellings and missing letters in my posts. :D But not likely.........
 
I am impressed with its construction

I also think since the relays are latching, they would work really well for indicator lights based on how a turnout is thrown. I may try to salvage them for this purpose.
 
I use a large assortment of ds64’s but have never delved into whatever it is the previous owner did there, you can bet though that whatever he had going on there worked otherwise wouldn’t have sealed it up.
 
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